How to Create Dummy Data to Test Bulk Actions

The Bulk Actions tool in XFtoWP 1.5 allows for large changes to be made to users across your site’s databases and should be wielded carefully.

Before running your first bulk action, it may be worth setting up a test WordPress and XenForo site with a separate API key for testing.

Doing these extra steps will help you learn the functionality and its effects before running it on a live site and will better help you instruct your users on how to use this new functionality.

1. Create separate WordPress and XenForo Installations

To avoid running requests to your live site, you should first start by creating separate WordPress and XenForo installations for your test environment.

You can do this with subdomains or entirely different domains, but the simplest setup usually goes something like:

xf.yourdomain.com
wp.yourdomain.com

Please do not password protect either website as that may block requests from being made across websites.

2. Setup a test API key and connect your test sites

Now that you have created two separate websites, login to your test XenForo admin and create a test API key and user.

Refer to the XenForo API Setup & Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on how to create an API user and permissions.

Once you have an API key setup, go ahead and connect your websites together and ensure your API is setup for the features you want to test. To test Bulk user syncing, you most likely want a Super User key setup.

3. Create dummy users data

With the Bulk Actions tool you can import users from both XenForo and WordPress. To best match your own live site, you may want to start by creating dummy users on the software your existing userbase is on.

I recommend the following tools for creating dummy user data on both WordPress and XenForo:

• XenForo: Bulk User Create by OzzModz
• WordPress: FakerPress
• WordPress: WP Bulk Delete
• WordPress: Query Monitor (for debugging)

These addons are enough to help you create as many test users as you want on either site.

Keep in mind, running bulk create/delete actions on your WordPress site with the “Enable sync user registration” option or “sync user deletion” will be applied to your XenForo users when running these plugins.

4. Run the import

Once you have bulk created users on either (or both sites) you are ready to run a test import and syncing process. Go to WP Admin > XF > Bulk actions to begin.

After the import is complete you can inspect your test users to see how they have been updated, and test basic functionality like login, edit password changes, and other data like Custom User Fields if you have them setup.

5. XFtoWP test use cases

Here are some test use cases you may want to explore to implement on your live website:

• After importing XF users to WP, try logging a user in from WP with the WP admin > XF > User sync > Sync XF user credentials setting enabled
• Enable WP admin > XF > user sync > Redirect after login and test logging a user in from WP and ensuring they are redirected and logged-in to your XenForo forum
• Setup a Custom User Field and run the Bulk Action “Refresh users” to apply it to all users
• Delete a user from WP and check that they are also deleted from XenForo if you are syncing user deletions
• Check WP admin > XF > Logs to jump between users and see sync data at the bottom of their user profile